A group of us met earlier this week at the legendary King’s Head Pub in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. Having set the meeting time as “Tuesday evening, sharp,” Jamie Arpin-Ricci and I sat down early to get some food beforehand, but decided to move upstairs in search of slightly quieter environs. Having just gotten started on a couple orders of ribs, we found ourselves overrun by some type of drawing or planning event for The Winnipeg Fringe Festival which drove us into the new upper room, where we settled down for the evening.

This provided an excellent venue for discussion, but left us a little concerned that people wouldn’t find us as easily. I left word with the staff on the main floor so they’d know where to send anyone looking for the “Theology Pub” …in response to the odd look the fellow gave me, I held out my hands, palms open and said, “The two do go together!” to which he replied, “Hand in hand.” In any event, when The Old Bill showed up, they simply motioned him upstairs without him having to say who he was looking for. We just aren’t sure what that means.

Our gathering consisted of one pastor, the aforementioned bloggers, a couple of people from the publishing industry, and a couple of denominational “representatives.” Quite a mix, which made for excellent discussion on a variety of topics, including our notes from the recent Leonard Sweet conference and a wide array of other topics as they struck us from a variety of sources including recent blogs. We also touched on Emergent.ca and other related matters.

Lots more to be said, and will be said. There is general interest in making our periodic gatherings into something a little more formal, which means mostly that there will be more than two days’ notice of a get-together following a sudden decision to hold one. It’s rather anticipated that this will reduce the number of people who respond with variations of “Great, keep me in the loop and let me know when the next one is, since I can’t make this one” and should serve to increase the actual attendance, since people will have enough warning to plan to show up. Interest is actually fairly wide-spread… it’ll also mean they should end up being not quite so far apart. A direct email will be going out shortly in this regard to people who have expressed interest already.